Our annual Oktoberfest gathering is on! And it's always made better by that sweet scent of a freshly produced beer. Looks like about 14 gallons in the secondaries, so that'll be around 13 gallons by the time it gets bottled.

Normally I would just declare it an Oktoberfestbier and let it sit for another month, but a neighbor has requested a birthday brew. That leaves me with only one viable option: bottle half, continue to lager the other half. One good thing about brewing in quantity is that you can do good by your neighbors and still have leftovers.

This recipe ended up with a good malt front and a pleasantly floral bitterness; presumably by the time the six or so Oktoberfestbier gallons make it through the lager, that will have waned into something more subtle. The Märzen may just be a bit hoppier than normal, but that's a tolerable situation.